Investors on Wall Street lead a stock market rally on Monday on the back of weekend data that shows that social distancing measures in the U.S. may be working to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The Dow Jones surged over 1,600 points and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq both rose over 7% from market optimism. Although it is still too early to know for sure, the number of confirmed cases across the U.S. have slowed during the past three days, bring hope to the uncertain market.
However, the death toll continues to rise exponentially. On Sunday, U.S. Surgeon General Vice Admiral Jerome Adams told Fox News that this week is "going to be the hardest and saddest week of most American's lives...this is going to be our Pearl Harbor moment, our 9/11 moment, only its not going to be localized."
Here's how the market ended to start the week:
S&P 500 Index (NYSE: SPY): +7.03% or +175.03 points to 2,663.68
Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE: DIA): +7.73% or +1.627.46 points to 22,679.99
Nasdaq Composite Index (NASDAQ: QQQ): +7.33% or +540.15 points to 7,913.24
In Major Stock News, Luckin Coffee (NASDAQ: LK) shares dropped steeply due to the company's CEO and chairman reportedly selling 7.6 million of the stock's depositary shares after the company defaulted on a loan. Shares of Zoom (NASDAQ: ZM) have fallen again amid more privacy concerns, however the company is still trading above consensus revenue estimates. The online retailer Wayfair (NYSE: W) rallied on Monday after the company announced that it expects to surpass its sales growth guidance. Vir Biotechnology (NASDAQ: VIR) jumped after the company announced it has partnered with GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK) to develop solutions for coronaviruses, including COVID-19. The biotech Immunomedics (NASDAQ: IMMU) surged almost 100% after the biotech announced a study of its breast cancer drug is showing really promising results. Prominent retail stocks--Kohl's (NYSE: KSS), Macy's (NYSE: M) and Nordstrom (NYSE: JWN)--rebounded on Monday due to the positive data surrounding the pandemic.
In Stock Sector News, all sectors partook in Monday's rally, with Information Technology exploding upward +8.78%. The rest of the performance gains were as follows: Utilities +7.85%, Consumer Discretionary +7.73%, Materials +7.60%, Financials +7.46%, Real Estate +7.21%, Industrials +7.02%, Communication Services +6.70%, Health Care +5.40%, Energy +5.15% and Consumer Staples +3.92%.
In Commodity and Currency News, oil prices plummeted after an OPEC decision delay, marking oils first loss in 3 sessions. West Texas Intermediate (NYSE: USO) fell almost -9.5% and Brent Crude (NYSE: BNO) declined over -4%, bring barrel prices between $26-$34 each. Gold (NYSE: GLD) saw a spike in share prices on Monday, with the metal's ounce price increasing +2.46% and futures settling at more than a 7-year high. Finally, the U.S. Dollar (NYSE: UUP) increased slightly on Monday, with the DXY Index gaining +0.11%.